


Hey Mister, you are mine!

by Jassanja



Series: Rent Boy Universe [4]
Category: As the World Turns
Genre: AU, Canon Gay Character, Canon Gay Relationship, Family Drama, M/M, Meet the Family, Mother vs. Mother, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-19
Updated: 2010-10-04
Packaged: 2017-10-12 00:42:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/118923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jassanja/pseuds/Jassanja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke Snyder comes to agree to the saying that weddings are fun, as long as they are not your own</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"We can't put them next to each other, they've been at a personal war ever since Henry and Barbara's wedding," Katie pointed out as Luke suggested the seating for table five.

"Thanks Katie, it's good to have your help. Else this could turn into a disaster!" Luke said then glanced towards where Reid and Chris were playing chess on the sofa.

"Like I knew enough small town gossip to know who to place next to each other and who shouldn't even be on the same continent together!" Reid said, betraying that he was listening to the wedding preparations after all.

"You still could help us with this," Katie complained. "At least pretend that you give a damn. It is your wedding too"

Reid captured Chris' queen before answering. "I'll show up, say I do, I don't drop the ring, kiss Luke, and let him lead in a waltz. Then I eat some cake and afterwards take Luke to bed to consummate the marriage," he said dryly. "See, I know my part in the ritual and I am going to make a kick-ass job out of it"

Chris chuckled, not even minding that Reid beat him. "What?" he asked as Katie glowered at him. "That is pretty much exactly what I did at our wedding, sweetheart!"

"Except that you did drop the ring!" Reid pointed out.

"Didn't we agree not to mention that anymore?"

"You agreed to that, I didn't!"

"Oh Reid!" Katie complained. "Besides, that was totally different. Of course Chris didn't do more for the preparation, he's a guy after all"

"Oh, and what are Luke and I?" Reid asked. "Life forms from another astral plane?"

"No!" Katie hurried to say, trying to find the right words. "Your just …"

"He's just Reid!" Luke interrupted her, laughing. "So of course he doesn't give a shit about this stuff!"

"Doesn't it annoy you?" Katie asked.

"Isn't like I expected his help to start with!" Luke admitted. "I'm still reeling from the miracle of him agreeing to a big wedding, or any wedding at all. I thought I would have to annoy and beg him for years first"

"Lucky you, my mother already did that job for you since well before you even knew you were gay," Reid said as he got up from the couch.

"You're still the one who went from not caring if gay-marriage was legal or not to saying yes in two weeks time."

"Don't make me regret it!" Reid said as he passed them by on his way to the kitchen. He grabbed one of the snacks Luke had prepared before this little get-together. He came back to stand behind Luke's chair at the dinning table, leaning over Luke's shoulder.  
"I'll make you a deal," he said as he grabbed for the guest list and the seating chart. "I'll do one table and you may order the napkins with the little pink hearts"

"Just don't get mayonnaise all over the returned RSVP cards!" Katie complained as she whipped off a splatter from one.

"And that is exactly the reason we should be happy that Reid doesn't give a damn about getting involved in the wedding preparations!" Luke said with a long suffering sigh as he looked over Reid's work ten minutes later.

Intrigued Katie looked at the names on the table Reid had placed together, not recognising any names. "Who are these people and why wouldn't it work?" she asked

"There are the snobbish parents of Reid's sister-in-law, a pretty homophobic member of the hospital board and the regional representative of the Human Rights Campaign and her wife." Luke pointed the three couples out.  
"Do you really have no clue how to seat guests or did you put them together on purpose?" he asked Reid.

"A little bit of both?" Reid answered sheepishly. "It would do for good drama!"

"My mother, your mother and Lucinda will be in a room together, I think that is just the limit of drama any wedding can handle, we don't need to create more"

"Speaking off Reid's family, are they going to stay with you guys?" Chris asked, who had started to help Reid to destroy a plate of sandwiches.

"Hell no!" Reid muttered, beating Chris' hand off the last bacon sandwich

"His parents are going to stay with Lucinda. They have met her before and actually get along pretty well." Luke explained. "His brother and his wife will stay at the farm, and everyone else is booked into the Lakeview"


	2. Chapter 2

Luke was able to talk Reid into meeting his family at the airport rather than just sending a car.

Luke recognized most of the people getting out of the Worldwide jet, even if only from meeting them in passing on the few occasions he had spent with the Oliver family.

He got a hug from Isabella and Daniel, a handshake and a pat on the back from David, and some theatrical air-kisses beside his cheeks from Angela.

While the rest of the guests were driven to the Lakeview Reid announced the plans for the rest of the day. "You'll get to meet Luke's parents first, before you will be brought to Lucinda's estate and the Snyder farm, where you will be staying"

Then they put the Oliver family into a limousine, while Luke and Reid followed in one of their cars.

"You didn't think it was rude not to let them get to their rooms first to freshen up?" Luke asked, as he put his seat belt on.

"Not ruder then they expect me to be," Reid said as he pulled the car out to the road. "But I don't want my mother to get enough rest to verbally arm herself. She's still not happy that we haven't agreed to hold the wedding in Boston among her friends." Reid chuckled. "I wish we could have blindfolded her for the ride to your mother's house."

"C'mon she can't find Oakdale that bad!"

"Remember how impressed I was at first?" Reid asked with a raised eyebrow. "She will find it ten times as bad. I'm sure she'll remember some of the adjectives I used to describe the place"

Luke laughed. "But unlike you she has the manners not to repeat them in good company"

"Good thing then Lucinda will be at your mother's"

"I'm just not sure if grandmother agreed to come because she really likes your parents or because she can't wait to see how your mother reacts to Oakdale."

Reid smiled his most wicked smile. "I'm sure it is the latter," he said as he pulled up in front of the house.

 

***

"Welcome to Oakdale!" Lily greeted the Oliver's with a warm smile and outstretched arms, but Angela Oliver avoided the hug in favour of disapprovingly glancing at Lily's too short dress and too deep cleavage.

Luke saw the moment his mother's real joy in meeting his new in-laws turned into a false cheerfulness towards her guests.

Angela marched right into the living room and glanced around. Luke had to hide a grin as she couldn't make out any antiques but neither found anything too cheap to openly be able to complain about, and instead just sat down in the middle of the couch without invitation, and with a gesture of her hand ordered her husband to sit beside her.

The rest of the Snyder's and the Oliver's settled in as well, with Lucinda sitting down on Angela's other side.

"So," Mrs. Oliver started, "this is Oakdale then! I have heard so much about it, first from Reid and then from Luke too." She looked at the Snyder's before continuing. " …a little town, like out of an old children's picture book" Her words were kind, but her frown betrayed her true opinion. "I always wanted to live in such a place, or at least I did until I reached my teenage years"

"Then you settled for the big city," Holden half asked, half stated

"Yes!" She took the offered refreshments. "When I grew up I just saw the advantages of living in a place that gave me options like having more than one place to shop or to eat what I wanted rather than taking into consideration the local establishments and their survival"

"Chicago is only a short drive from here!" Lucinda pointed out. "We have peace and quite out here, and can always opt for more excitement"

"Yes," Lily beamed as she agreed, "and on top of it going to Chicago is always a bit of an adventure, since we don't have to deal with the noise and filth all the time. That can be a real burden if we would move to a big city"

"But, see," Angela continued in a biting tone, "even you call going to the city an adventure and something special, so of course it is better than a one-horse town, like this!"

"Could we please try to keep this civil?" Reid asked in a surprisingly calm way. "You know mother, Oakdale might be small, but it sure as hell has more than one horse around." He indicated towards Holden, "if only because he breeds them"

"What else is there to see in town?" Isabella asked in an attempt to disarm the conversation, before Angela had the chance to remark on the fact that Reid was marring into a farmer's family.  
"We've seen the airport and Luke has mentioned a college and the shipyard before, so it can't be all that small a town"

"The hospital!" Daniel pointed out, looking at Reid.

"Well, of course!" His wife answered, "I didn't even think I would need to mention that"

"We have a charming city-center called Old Town," Holden told them. "Perhaps you get the chance to stroll through there during your stay. And then there is the Lakeview Hotel, who has come into even more demand since the Snyder-Pavilion and the Hughes-Paediatric Center opened at Memorial."

"I own part of the hotel!" Lily hurried to say, "and we have plans to add another building to it too next year. Then we will house the biggest spa this side of Chicago."

"A busy little town, this Oakdale!" Angela sneered, "and you can run all this infrastructure on a hundred citizens?"

Luke elbowed Reid into the side, as his partner started to chuckle at that particular jab.

"Actually, we now have almost up to a thousand people living here, without counting the student at the University, a lot of them having moved here in the past few years due to the developments at Memorial." Luke put his hand lightly on Reid's leg, smiling warmly at him. " The whole town has profited from having the hospital run by two such progressive, future oriented doctors like Reid and Chris Hughes."

"Oh yes," Angela Oliver continued to mock, "A couple more years and Memorial will outdo Johns Hopkins!"

"That's the goal for this year, actually!" Reid said dryly, getting a laugh out of everyone except his mother.

"Enough about us and Oakdale," Lily said, trying to find a new strategy that would uphold a conversation without turning it into yet another topic to fight over. "Let's talk about you. What are you doing, Mr. Oliver?"

David was just about to answer, but his wife was faster.

"He retired a couple of years ago from his position as a partner at a law firm. Daniel is about to become a partner in the same company soon as well. " She smiled at her younger son. "As for his wife, Isabella over here, she works as an accountant. I myself have always done a lot of volunteer work. Right now I'm taking charge of a soup kitchen."

"That sounds fantastic!" Lily said with the first honest smile since the Oliver's had set foot in her house. "Perhaps I should come visit you in Boston soon, and we both could help out one evening."

"I don't think my mother means hands-on help like that, Lily," Reid said with a glare to Angela. "I'm sure I know her well enough to tell you that she only works for places like that by talking to trustees, guilt trip her friends in throwing spare change into the direction of the institution or talking to journalists about how important her work is. As for the soup kitchen itself, I'm sure mother wouldn't find it if in a one block radius of it."

"Reid!" Angela chided him like an unruly preschooler.

"It's the truth mother, and you now it!"

"Well," Lucinda stood up, "it is getting late. Angela, David, why don't you come with me, I'll show you my guest house"

"Of course Lucinda," Angela agreed, hurrying to follow the other woman, "I just can't wait to see your home"

They left with some kind words to Lily and Holden and the room fell silent in their wake.

"Ehm…," Daniel said after an uncomfortable minute in the direction of Luke and Reid, "why don't you guys bring us to that farm you mentioned."

"Sure!" Luke said, dragging Reid up with him, "you will love the place!"

 

***

"Can I have your attention, please?" Katie called out to the crowd at Yo's!

"You know we are all gathered here because tomorrow the world will come to an end, or at least it will feel like it, because we all swore sooner or later that this will happen before Luke and Reid would get hitched"

Not only had the beginning of her speech given her the attention of everyone in the bar, but now there where also good-hearted cheers and catcalls.

"Let's take little walk down memory lane!" Chris continued.

"One nice day a couple of years ago, Luke decided that he wanted to get married. Unfortunately his search on 'Russian Gay Grooms" was just as futile as the selection on 'Hot Men from Asia'"

"But then he got his hands on the top ten list of the worlds neurosurgeons, and confused it with the catalogue of "Hubbies who like to play Doctor'" Casey piped in. "So he tried to buy Doctor Oliver, who unfortunately wasn't for sale!"

"But this didn't stop our dearest Luke," Isabella filled the crowd in next, "after all, he had a foundation, he had a horse, he had a private jet. Who wouldn't fall for all those charms?"

"My brother unfortunately was able to resist all that!" Daniel said, almost unable to refrain from joining the rest of the bar patrons in laughter. "So he had to be dragged to Luke kicking and screaming!"

"Once in Oakdale it took the threat of jail and a date with a tear leaking nurse to keep Reid talking to Luke!" The telling of the tale was back to Katie now. "But then Luke found the way to Reid's heart after all. He bribed him with the promise of never-ending sandwich supplies into staying at first, and now into marriage."

"To Luke and Reid! May they bicker until the day someone with a brain decides to do a remake of 'The Godfather part three'!"

 

"You can't be serious!" Reid groaned as the familiar teasing strip-song started to blast through the speakers at Yo's!

"Of course we are serious!" Chris said as he and Daniel spun Reid and Luke towards where the stripper was entering the bar.

One look at the scantily clad older woman with curves in all he wrong places had Reid groaning and burring his face in his hands.

Luke joined the rest of the bar patrons in a bout of laughter. He would have to congratulate whoever had the idea of taking the idea of a stripper for their bachelor-party to another lever of hilarity to punish Reid for his constant complains about wedding traditions.

He put out his hand to pat Reid hard between the shoulders as Reid had problems swallowing his beer as the stripper had chosen just the perfect moment to shove her oversized bra in Reid's face.

Thankfully the performance was kept short, and the bra remained the only piece of clothing taken off.  
There was loud amused cheering and the stripper excused herself with a blown kiss in Luke's direction, making him blush as well after all.

"Don't worry," Casey said, coming up to Reid's side, "that's all of the embarrassing stuff we had in store for you tonight!"

"What?" asked Reid in mock outrage, "no hot guy to follow up that nightmare?"

"Nope!" Katie beamed, "we didn't want to make things worse for Luke. Who knew, if we got some hot muscle man you might decide to run off with him!"

"Actually, I was thinking for Luke's benefit!" Reid said, not even acknowledging the stupid joke.

"My benefit?" Luke asked surprised.

"Yeah, because if I remember right you're going on thirty and still haven't seen a male stripper in action."

Luke blushed and turned away from Reid, but to no avail as Isabella was standing on his other side. She reached out and pinched his flushed cheeks.

"Isn't he cute?" she asked her brother-in-law.

"I wouldn't use cute," Reid said after a beat. "Cloyingly naïve is way more accurate!"

"I'm naïve because I don't get off of juiced-up men who take oil-baths for a living?"

"No, you're naïve because you go out of your way to never even be put into a situation where you could come across a man like that!" Reid paused, then added, "but it's also one of your charms!"

 

********

"Oh no!" Katie gripped for Luke's upper arm as he was about to join Reid in their car. "You're going to spend the night at the farm"

"We are?" Reid asked.

"No, Luke is!"

"Why?" Luke asked bewildered.

"Because it's tradition. You're not allowed to spend the last night before the wedding together"

Reid just rolled his eyes, while Luke shrugged in apology. "Can't argue with tradition"

"I can try!" Reid said, looking at Katie and Isabella who were standing beside Luke, ready to whisk him away. "Do I at least get to say good-night?" he asked as he went around the car and put his arms around Luke, who leaned in for a kiss. "Perhaps even with the illusion of privacy?"

The two women stepped back but Luke could still hear them awing and cooing as Reid touched his cheek and sucked his lower lip between his own.

Luke moaned into the kiss and slipped his hand under the hem of Reid's shirt.

"Do you really have to go with them?" Reid whispered into Luke's ear, tonguing the lobe.

"Fear so!" Luke's voice was breathless as he regretfully separated from Reid. "Good night!"

"Good night!" Reid answered, leaning his forehead against Luke's for a few seconds, before he let him go.

Half an hour later Luke was laying in his old room at the farm, restlessly tossing and turning, before he reached for his phone.

"Isn't this cheating the tradition?" Reid answered after the first ring.

"Nah," Luke said with a grin. "It's the evolution of the tradition since there are mobile phones"

"I see!" Reid said and Luke could hear the smile in his voice.

"I can't sleep in an empty bed!" Luke said, knowing his own voice was sounding whiney

"Now don't be such a drama queen," Reid chided like on command. "You know that's not true. You sleep perfectly well in an empty bed all the time when I have to work or get paged to an emergency!"

"That's different!" Luke pointed out

"It's one night, sweetheart," Reid said softly, the endearment sending a shiver of love down Luke's spine, as it always did. "Besides, you were the one to go with the hags willingly, in the name of tradition"

"Doesn't stop me from missing you"

"Just close your eyes and go to sleep, Luke. Remember, tomorrow at this time you'll be me mine!"

"I am already yours!"

"I know!"

***

Luke didn't know when he fell asleep after thinking some more about the fact that this one night was all that stood between him and his marriage to Doctor Snyder.

He just woke up surprised when the door to his room opened with a small sound as someone stepped into his room.

"It's just me!" Reid said as he sat down on the bed and reached out to touch Luke's face.

"You're not supposed to be here," Luke said, a wide smile on his face. "You are messing up the tradition!"

"What can I say, I don't do rituals!"

"I could point out that you do follow rituals every time you scrub in or make a sandwich"

"But you don't because you know that I would call you an idiot, because those are totally different circumstances, "Reid said as he took his cloths off.

"Exactly!" Luke moved to make room for Reid.

"You can't expect me to follow outdated, medieval rituals every time I marry you"

"You're planning to marry me more than once?" Luke cuddled up to Reid and put his head on his chest.

"Knowing the Snyder track-record, I guess I will"

Luke laughed despite himself. "And who shall we date, if not marry, in our off times?"

"You could always fall back on Noah," Reid said dryly as he played with a strand of Luke's hair

"But he's so happy with Richard"

"Don't worry, that won't be a problem, since we'll get divorced because I run off with Richard. Guy has a thing for me after all"

"So you noticed," Luke said, getting the answer to a question he had long wondered about.

"It's hard not to, since he molests my ass with his eyes every time he get's the chance"

Reid kissed the top of Luke's head and Luke lifted his face up, offering his lips.

"As for the time the second divorce is due," Reid continued after a long, sweet kiss, "you'll get Richard and I will console Noah"

Luke laughed out loud, throwing his head back in mirth. "You know, even in Oakdale the pool of gay men has to be bigger." He put his head back to Reid's chest, kissing his shoulder in the process. He held still for a while as he felt Reid's fingers in his hair.

"Since you are rubbish at following traditions," Luke spoke at long last, "how about starting a new one?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Us getting married and staying so for a couple of decades"

"Yeah," Reid mumbled sleepily, "let's try that. It sounds like fun!"

Contend Luke let himself be lulled into sleep by the sound of Reid's breath, the beating of their hearts and the rustle of the wind in the trees in front of the open window.


	3. Chapter 3

Luke woke up to the same sounds he had fallen asleep to. Just that one glance out the window showed him that it wasn't wind that rustled the leaves of the trees, but heavy drops of rain.

"Is there any meaning behind rainy wedding days?" Reid asked as he came up behind Luke, and put his arms around him and rested his chin on Luke's shoulder.

"Wouldn't know on top of my head," Luke said as he leaned back, and soaked in the warmth of Reid's body . "But it will make sure that every year, when people send us Christmas cards they will remember how wet their feet got at our wedding"

Reid chuckled, but whatever he wanted to say got interrupted by a knock on the door.

"You're up, Luke?" Daniel's voice sounded through the door.

"Yeah, we're awake!" Reid yelled back, and the door flew open with a loud bang.

"Reid! What are you doing here? Isabella and the other women will go crazy if they learn of this and how you spite fate."

Reid just rolled his eyes.

"If things in this marriage will go wrong, it will not be because of one night spent together. Besides, we've been good little grooms. Just sleeping, no fucking!"

Daniel laughed while shaking his head at his older brother.

"Get dressed you two, I will prepare the ladies for the scandalizing news, and tell Emma that we will need more breakfast since you're around!"

***

Hours later the weather still hadn't cleared up as the first guests started to arrive.

"How about we just postpone the wedding till tomorrow?" Lily suggested

"Report says it won't clear up for days!" Lucinda pointed out

"Then what about next week?" Lily said, looking at Luke and Reid

"Now wouldn't you just like that!" Angela Oliver interfered before either of them could say anything. "Postponing it until my family is gone, so you can have the celebration all to yourself and your inbreed family." Her voice was steadily getting louder and louder. "I will not be pushed aside when my son finally gets married. I waited almost fifty years for this day to happen, and now that it's finally here, I demand to be present"

"And nobody has any intention to take that away from you!" Luke tried to calm her down.

"Damn right!" Reid's mother said, in her anger forgetting all her manners. "And that is why it has to happen today! Else we will miss our flight back home."

"Mother!" Reid said sharply, trying his best not to let his own anger show. "You got flown in by Lucinda's jet and you're gonna leave the same way, so there is really no reason for you to worry about missing your flight. It will leave exactly when you want it to leave, not one minute sooner"

"But I can't miss my bridge game the day after tomorrow!" Angela pointed out

"So you keep pointing out how important this wedding is to you, yet you still put a game of bridge before it"

"It isn't just any game. The senator's niece is part of our group."

Reid groaned, and Luke cold see David Oliver put his face in his hands, trying to vanish into his corner of the farm kitchen.

"Of course, that explains everything!" Reid said, his tone of voice biting, "I am sure she would understand you missing one game because you're out of state for your son's wedding."

"Of course she would understand that," his mother assured, "but then I would also have to mention who you got married to. I may have accepted that you are a homosexual but not everyone is fine with that, no matter how hard you try to ignore that. And she is the senator's niece after all"

Reid got up off his chair and shoved the assorted members of both their families out of his way. "I need some air!" he said and walked out into the rain, the door slamming behind him. His father followed him in a more polite way.

"Was that really necessary?" Daniel asked his mother to fill the sudden silence in the kitchen.

"I'm not going to apologize for telling the truth!" his mother said.

"As nice as this little spat about politics and harsh truths is, it still doesn't solve any of our problems!" Luke said, as uncomfortable silence was once again settling over the crowded room. "We are still going to have close to two hundred people here within the next hour, and there isn't a single dry spot to fit them into"

"I'm sorry, darling, " Lily said as she put her arm around Luke's shoulder, "we could still clear out the Lakeview. I'm sure those people of that conference will understand that a town wedding is more important…"

"No, mom, we already talked about that. We are not going to lock those people up into their rooms just because I am the son of one of the owners. "

He could hear Angela Oliver snort from her spot on the opposite end of the table.  
"What good does power do, if you are not willing to use it?"

"Angela, darling," Lucinda said, putting her hand over Mrs. Oliver's, "there is a thin line between using and abusing power. It takes a strong person to walk it, and I am proud to say that both your son and my grand-son know how to do it with responsibility and dignity. We should be proud that they choose not to put more people in misery today than is absolutely necessary"

"I've told the two of you ages ago that it was a bad idea to hold this wedding in this hick town!"

Angela was now directing her anger towards Luke. "This would never have happened in Boston where there would have been more than one alternate venue big enough for the wedding."

"Their life is here, in Oakdale!" Lily almost yelled back. "The people who really care about them are all here. So it's only right that they choose to hold the ceremony here, at home."

Luke was feeling a headache forming behind his skull.  
Who had it been who told him that weddings were fun, as long as they weren't your own? He was about to agree and the day wasn't even half over.

Just as he was contemplating leaving the kitchen and the two livid mother fighting for dominance in favour of searching for Reid and his father, Katie burst into the kitchen.

"Hey!" she greeted everyone before turning to Luke and Daniel.

"Could you two head out to the barn? Looks like Holden has an idea as how to safe the wedding without all of us needing our bathing suits. Reid, David, Jack and Chris are already there, but they could still need some more help."

***

"So you are really planning to go through with this?" Chris asked, as he stood with Luke and Reid in Luke's room, helping the two men getting dressed.

"Doogie, that's a stupid question even for you!" Reid pointed out. "I know in this town it is not unheard of that weddings get cancelled at the last minute, but when have you known me to get cold feet?"

Chris pulled on Reid's tie hard enough to have Reid gasp for air. "I didn't mean the wedding, just the name change stuff," he explained, as he let Reid loosen the tie enough to still be able to breath. "I was thinking it was a joke up until now. Not that I mind a modern approach, but this means that the hospital will have to reprint all promotional material that mentions you. And since you are not just some lowly doctor in the neurology department, but a co-Chief of Staff this means that we have to change every single piece of promotional material the hospital has."

"And this is a problem why?" Reid asked

"I think he tries to say that it will get expensive." Luke said with a grin

"We'll probably need to have a cardiologist at hand down in accounting when they get the bill, just to be safe."

"Don't be so dramatic, Doogie, I don't demand that it is all changed right away"

"But we need to change it all at once. If half the material lists you as Doctor Oliver and the other half as Doctor Snyder, people could get confused and decide to get treatments somewhere else. It would cost us even more in the long run"

"Chris has a point," Luke interjected before Reid could say something. "Chris, why don't you just get everything printed with Reid's new name, and send the bill to my office at Grimaldi?"

"I will do that, thank you Luke." With that Chris left.

"You realize that you just got hustled?"

"Probably, yeah, " Luke answered, "but I couldn't care less today."

"And it still turns you on like hell that I'm taking your name!" Reid concluded

"You still turn me on like hell!" Luke smiled seductively at Reid. "But yeah, the name thing's a thrill on it own"

"How long do you think the thrill will last?" Reid asked as he put his hand to the front of Luke's pants, giving the half-hard cock underneath a squeeze

Luke gasped at the unexpected touch.

"A while," he said, pressing his hip into the contact, "a year at least, I guess"

"Good!" Reid all but purred into Luke's ear.

"You think we can sneak off and find a bit of privacy before the ceremony?"

Before Reid could answered with an affirmative, the door to Luke's room flew open and Angela Oliver stormed in.

"I can't believe the nerve of that Katie woman! Being pregnant during your wedding…" she ragged at Reid, not noticing how the two men hastily took steps back from each other.

"It's nothing she can just switch off, mother" Reid pointed out.

"Of course not, but you and Luke set the date well over a year ago. And I am sure you told her that she would be part of the wedding party then, if not sooner. So she shouldn't have gotten pregnant until this was over."

"It's not like Katie is due any day now." Luke didn't quite understand why Mrs. Oliver was upset because of something as simple as this.

"She's still stealing attention that should be on the two of you!" Angela reached out to straighten Reid's already straight tie. "Everybody will wonder anyway if she's going to pop the baby out right away, or talk about how far along she is, or speculate if it will be a boy or a girl, or if they already have decided on names…"

"Some people got problems!" Reid muttered as the door flew open again, and Lily walked in as well.

"The barn is ready, and all guests have found space in there. Holden was right, it will work out," she announced

"Holding a wedding in a barn?" Angela Oliver was making a face, again, at the idea. " Amidst all these horses and their shi.. excrements? Now we really have reached a new low point!" she muttered as she clutched her pearls.

"The horses are in the stable," Lily lectured her, "the barn is storage space, and perfectly clean. I wonder why I never had the brilliant idea to get married in there myself"

"I'm just saying, I think it is the wrong place to hold my son's wedding"

"Mother, we heard your opinion the first ten times, but it is not your place to decide where we will get married, and Luke and I happen to agree with Lily and Holden about the barn"

"Just don't come to me and complain about it, in a couple of weeks!" Angela sneered as she walked out and closed the door behind her with more force then absolutely necessary

Lily stared after her, her face gone red with furry.

"Can you believe the nerve of her?" she finally exploded. "Showing up in a white dress!"

"What's wrong with that? She looks good in it," Luke said with a shrug.

"There's only room for one white dress at a wedding, and it's not the mother of the groom who get's to wear it"

Luke ducked his head in amusement. "You know, despite Natalie's best efforts to talk me into it, neither Reid nor I will be wearing a white wedding gown"

He noted that his mother was too upset to laugh at the joke, as she kept insisting. "But this is so her. I only know her for a few days, but I already see that this is just the thing she would do. Stealing all the attention , behaving like it's her special day, not her son's!"

As if to prove her point she moved over to Reid and started to fuss with his tie, before he could slap her hand away.

"Why is everyone fumbling around with my tie? Don't you think I am able to tie is myself?"

"Sorry, honey!" Lily said, ignoring the look on Reid's face at the endearment, "but I guess we are all nervous, and just want to do something to keep busy"

"Well then, get to the barn and let us bring this behind us, so everyone can just calm the fuck down!"

Luke laughed as he put his arms on Reid's shoulder, resisting the urge to reach out for his tie himself.

"Good thing you at least are keeping your nerves of steal, Doctor Oliver"

***

Luke and Reid stood across from each other in the small utility room at the head of the barn, out of sight from the guests, but still amidst all the excited noise created by so many people in a small, enclosed space.

"We can still elope," Reid said as he looked at Luke."Vermont, Canada, the Lakeview!"

"Are you afraid?" Luke asked, smiling

"Scared shitless!" Reid admitted

Luke gave him a small kiss. "You don't have to be, " he said, lacing their fingers together. "I'll be right there beside you, holding your hand. Just remember to say 'I do' if anyone asks you a direct question"

Luke linked their arms, smiling as he remembered the first time doing this, back at that hotel bar, pretending to be Reid's boyfriend.

"Showtime!" he repeated his words from back then, before they stepped out into the barn together.


End file.
